Moderating Effects of Informal Care on the Relationship Between ADL Limitations and Adverse Outcomes in Stroke Survivors

BACKGROUND: Stroke survivors with limitations in activities of daily living (ADL) have a greater risk of experiencing falls, hospitalizations, or physical function decline. We examined how informal caregiving received in hours per week by stroke survivors moderated the relationship between ADL limitations and adverse outcomes. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort, community-dwelling participants were extracted from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011–2020; n=277) and included if they had at least 1 formal or informal caregiver and reported an incident stroke in the prior year. Participants reported the amount of informal caregiving received in the month prior (low [<5.8], moderate [5.8–27.1], and high [27.2–350.4] hours per week) and their number of ADL limitations (ranging from 0 to 7). Participants were surveyed 1 year later to determine the number of adverse outcomes (ie, falls, hospitalizations, and physical function decline) experienced over the year. Poisson regression coefficients were converted to average marginal effects and estimated the moderating effects of informal caregiving hours per week on the relationship between ADL limitations and adverse outcomes. RESULTS: Stroke survivors were 69.7% White, 54.5% female, with an average age of 80.5 (SD, 7.6) years and 1.2 adverse outcomes at 2 years after the incident stroke. The relationships between informal caregiving hours and adverse outcomes and between ADL limitations and adverse outcomes were positive. The interaction between informal caregiving hours per week and ADL limitations indicated that those who received the lowest amount of informal caregiving had a rate of 0.12 more adverse outcomes per ADL (average marginal effect, 0.12 [95% CI, 0.005–0.23]; P =0.041) than those who received the highest amounts. CONCLUSIONS: Informal caregiving hours moderated the relationship between ADL limitations and adverse outcomes in this sample of community-based stroke survivors. Higher amounts relative to lower amounts of informal caregiving hours per week may be protective by decreasing the rate of adverse outcomes per ADL limitation.